Berkeley Old Time Music Convention:
Cedric Watson, Bigfoot, and Clean Heat

This performance is part of the Berkeley Old Time Music Convention (BOTMC). For the full schedule of events, visit the BOTMC website.

Cedric Watson

One of the brightest young talents to emerge in Cajun, Creole and Zydeco (Louisiana French) music over the last decade, Cedric Watson is a four-time Grammy-nominated fiddler, singer, accordionist & songwriter with seemingly unlimited potential.

Originally from San Felipe, TX (population 868), Cedric made his first appearance at the age of 19 at the Zydeco Jam at The Big Easy in Houston, TX. Just two years later, he moved to south Louisiana, quickly immersing himself in French music and language. Over the next several years, Cedric performed French music in 17 countries and on 7 full-length albums with various groups, including the Pine Leaf Boys, Corey Ledet, Les Amis Creole with Ed Poullard and J.B. Adams, and with his own group, Bijou Creole.

Cedric Watson resurrects the ancient sounds of the French and Spanish contra dance and bourré alongside the spiritual rhythms of the Congo tribes of West Africa, who were sold as slaves in the Caribbean and Louisiana by the French and Spanish.

With an apparently bottomless repertoire of songs at his fingertips, Cedric plays everything from forgotten Creole melodies and obscure Dennis McGee reels to more modern Cajun and Zydeco songs, even occasionally throwing in a bluegrass fiddle tune or an old string band number. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he is also a prolific songwriter, writing almost all of his songs on his double row Hohner accordion. Cedric’s songs channel his diverse ancestry (African, French, Native American and Spanish) to create his own brand of sounds.

Cedric’s albums are a tapestry of pulsing rhythms and Creole poetry, and his live performances are unforgettable, all at once progressive and nostalgic.

“We don’t want to forget that one of the biggest contributions to our culture, music and heritage was made by the Native Americans. I find that the old Zydeco rhythms sound like a mix of African and Native American ceremonial rhythms. This mélange very possibly came about through the intermingling of the Native American population and the Maroons.” –Cedric Watson

https://bijoucreole.com/

Bigfoot

Formed in 2010 to compete in the traditional string band contest at Clifftop, they took the name Bigfoot from Rhys Jones’ swollen foot at the time, and they took first place. The band members are Rhys Jones & Cleek Schrey on fiddles, John Herrmann on banjo, Susie Goehring on guitar and Meredith McIntosh on bass. Everyone but Cleek sings. They are all household names in old-time music and veterans of many great bands.

John Herrmann: Best known as a banjo player, John is also an expert guitarist, bassist and fiddler, and he has played with many notable bands such as the Henrie Brothers, Ralph Blizzard, One Eyed Dog, the Wandering Ramblers and Songs from the Mountains. He and his partner Meredith McIntosh have been part of the Midnight Mockingbirds, Ida Red and the Rockinghams, to name just a few.

Meredith McIntosh: With a degree in music education and a great love for old-time music, Meredith is known as a patient and enthusiastic teacher. She plays fiddle, guitar, bass, flute and piano. Over the years she has performed with Ida Red, the Heartbeats, Balfa Toujours, The Rockinghams, and The New Southern Ramblers (with John Herrmann, Gordy Hinners and Phil Jamison). She lives in Asheville NC where she is a certified massage therapist and teacher of The Alexander Technique.

Rhys Jones: One of the finest contemporary old-time fiddlers around. Born in Chicago, he began his fiddling in the fertile environment of the Chicago Barn Dance Company. Soon after, his family moved to southern West Virginia where he learnt from the older generation of fiddlers, including Ernie Carpenter, Melvin Wine and Wilson Douglas. Rhys has played for concerts, dances, workshops and festivals across the United States and Europe, has won both fiddle and band contests at The Appalachian String Band Festival (Clifftop), and is regarded as one of the best fiddlers of his generation.

Cleek Schrey: Described by the Irish Times as “a musician utterly at one with his instrument and his music.” Cleek Schrey is a fiddler and composer from Virginia, now based in NYC. The journal Sound Post has noted that Cleek “possesses a rare combination of traits: deep respect for traditional music and the people who make it, and an unbounded curiosity about new directions for sound.”

Susie Goerhing: has been playing old-time fiddle and guitar and singing Appalachian ballads and Carter Family songs since the late 1970s when she first joined forces with long time musical partners Jeff and Rick Goerhing. This musical trio formed the core of the Red Mules, an old-time string band that actively performed at festivals, music and dance camps, square dances and social gatherings throughout the 1980s and 90s. Susie has also performed with Rayna Gellert producing several fine CDs.

https://www.facebook.com/p/Bigfoot-100062940053896/

Clean Heat

Clean Heat is the duo of Evie Ladin & Lila Goehring. Banjo player, singer, songwriter, percussive-dancer, choreographer and square-dance caller - Evie Ladin has been a fan of classic country since Lila was born. Family friends forever, the two have near-sister harmonies they’ve delighted in since Lila arrived in the Bay Area to attend Mills College, sharing common taste in repertoire, and the context of growing up in a deeply skilled old time music and dance community. Heard from A Prairie Home Companion to Lincoln Center, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass to Celtic Connections, Evie has taken home ribbons from Mt Airy, NC Fiddler’s Convention, and the Appalachian Stringband Festival, Clifftop, WV. A prolific songwriter to boot, Evie tours with Keith Terry and her Evie Ladin Band from her home base in Oakland. Lila Goehring grew up immersed in old time country music and has sung with luminaries in the field like Ginny Hawker, Val Mindel and her own mother Susie Goehring, who will be appearing at the BOTMC with the band Bigfoot. Lila is a writer and editor based in San Francisco.

www.evieladin.com